Bodies of 85 dead Palestinians found in first hours of "humanitarian truce"
between Israel and Hamas, as foreign ministers meeting in Paris called for
an extension to the 12-hour Gaza truce

The full devastation of the assault on Gaza came into focus on Saturday morning as a 12-hour humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas allowed for the discovery of the bodies of at least 85 Palestinians bodies beneath the war-torn coastal enclave's rubble.

The discovery of further bodies, which raises to 985 the total death toll in Gaza, came within hours of the fragile ceasefire entering into force at 8.00am local time (6.00am BST).

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: David Blair - For the first time since I came to &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&amp;q=%23Gaza" target="_blank"&gt;#Gaza&lt;/a&gt;, I can't see any Israeli warships lurking off the coast. Ceasefire holding for now.&lt;/noframe&gt;

Hamas and the Israeli military announced their consent to the truce in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry and top diplomats from Europe and the Middle East gathered in Paris on Saturday called for an extension to a temporary ceasefire currently in force between Israel and Hamas.

The streets of Gaza were full of people carrying bundles of possessions salvaged from their homes.

Hamas said it and other militant groups in Gaza had reached "national consensus on a humanitarian truce", and Israel later confirmed it would observe what it called "a humanitarian window in the Gaza Strip".

The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza advised people not to approach bombed-out buildings and militant bases for fear of "explosive objects".

The Israeli military warned Gaza residents who had been told to evacuate their homes not to return and said "activities to locate and neutralise tunnels in the Gaza Strip will continue".

The appeals came after US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Cairo on Friday, said efforts to broker a longer halt to the fighting had yet to bear fruit.

Palestinians carry the body of Mohammed al-Araj during his funeral in the Qalandiya refugee camp (AP)

On Saturday Kerry flew to Paris where French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius hosted him and their counterparts from Britain, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Turkey and the European Union.

"We all call on parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire currently in force, by 24 hours that could be renewed," France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters after the meeting, which lasted more than two hours.

"We all want to obtain a lasting ceasefire as quickly as possible that addresses both Israeli requirements in terms of security and Palestinian requirements in terms of socio-economic development."

"It's now about reaching a common position that we must put an end to the deaths," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had said before the talks began.

Kerry, who has been leading international efforts to reach a truce, has been in regular contact with the foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar as both countries wield influence on Hamas.

As the 12-hour truce went into effect on Saturday, Palestinians cautiously took to the streets in Gaza, with some returning to areas that had been too dangerous to enter for days.

In northern Beit Hanun there were scenes of total destruction, with buildings flattened and even the hospital badly damaged by shell fire.

Varda (C), the mother of Israeli soldier Daniel Pomerantz, who was killed during fighting in Gaza on Sunday, salutes next to his grave (REUTERS)

Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said 35 bodies were retrieved in the first three hours since the humanitarian truce came into effect. Thirteen bodies were recovered in Shejaiya in eastern Gaza City, 13 more in Deir al-Balah and Nusseirat in central Gaza, and nine in north Gaza.

AFP correspondents came across the charred body of a paramedic and trails of blood crossed by Israeli tank tracks, as well as holes in the ground where it appeared the army had been searching for Hamas tunnels.

Before the truce, the toll on the ground in Gaza rose to at least 891 Palestinians killed, among them eight people killed in a single air strike in southern Khan Yunis, where an ambulance worker was also killed on Saturday morning.

The conflict, which began July 8 when Israel launched an operation to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza and destroy Hamas tunnels, has also claimed the lives of 37 Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai migrant worker.

On Friday, Mr Ban urged a truce be agreed that would last through the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, and expected to fall around Monday.

A scene in Shejaiya, Gaza (DAVID BLAIR/THE TELGRAPH)

Hamas has insisted that any truce must include a guaranteed end to Israel's eight-year blockade of Gaza, while in Israel there are calls for any deal to include the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip.

The situation in Gaza has created tensions in the West Bank, where protests against Israel's role in the conflict erupted after Friday prayers.

Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers early Saturday morning in separate clashes in the north and south of the West Bank.

That followed the deaths of five Palestinians on Friday, including four shot dead by Israeli troops and one killed by an Israeli settler.

In Gaza, there have been international concerns about the number of civilians killed in the conflict, including in a Thursday attack in which at least 15 people were killed in the alleged Israeli shelling of a UN school.

The facility was sheltering some of the 100,000 Palestinians who have fled their homes during fighting.

Sufian Hamad, mayor of Beit Hanoun in Gaza, beside the ruins of his home (DAVID BLAIR/THE TELEGRAPH)

Rights groups say about 80 per cent of the casualties so far have been civilians, and the UN agency for children Unicef said on Friday that 192 children had been killed during the conflict.

The Israeli army on Saturday announced the death of two soldiers in Gaza fighting on Friday evening, raising the military toll to 37.

It named one as Staff Sergeant Guy Boyland, 21, but did not give further details.

Three civilians have been killed inside Israel by rocket fire from Gaza, which continued Saturday morning before the truce with three shot down by missile defences and one falling on open ground, the army said.

It said militants fired 60 rockets into southern Israel on Friday, with another 15 intercepted.